He has just joined the prestigious lineage of Antoine Blondin, Albert Simonin, Roland Topor, Geneviève Dormann and other Bernard Franks… Guy Boley won the Deux Magots prize on Monday, September 25 for To my sister and unique (published by Grasset), novel dedicated to Elisabeth, the sister of Friedrich Nietzsche. A few minutes after his victory Étienne de Montety, president of the jury, showed his satisfaction by declaring: “It’s deserved!” The winner was elected in the first round, with seven votes, against five for Gaspard Koenig (Humus). Guy Boley, 72 years old today, around fifty of whom are devoted to the art of writing, is originally from Franche-Comté, a country he loves. He was crowned late, after a life in which he exercised many professions other than a writer, including that of a tightrope walker. His first novel (Fils du feu) was only published in 2016.
Receiving a prize at this age, “it doesn’t hurt,” he congratulated himself a few minutes after his triumph. “I arrived this morning by train being convinced that I was not going to win,” he explained to journalists present at Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. “I had worked on Nietzsche for a dance performance (…) I realized that it was very important to reestablish the truth.” The story returns to the close relationship between the philosopher brother and his sister, then to the manipulation of the latter to, posthumously, make him one of the precursor thinkers of Nazism that he was not. His publisher Grasset saw it as a “Shakespearean drama”. In broad daylight and not behind closed doors as for the Goncourt and the Renaudot, the jury for the Prix des Deux Magots deliberated in front of an audience of guests in the large room of the famous brasserie in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. Created in 1933, the prize is worth 7,750 euros. Until then awarded in January, it was moved to September for his 90th birthday.
